Such a connecting device is known from U.S. Pat. No. 5,083,331 DE-A-40 15 471, the content of which publication is to its full extent incorporated into this application. This connecting apparatus offers the possibility, by solely through a vertical relative movement between the support column of an operating table and a transport carriage, for a patient support means to be transferred from the transport carriage to the support column, or the reverse, wherein before the transfer a control surface on the pin receiver of the receiving component (support column or transport carriage) unlatches a latching element at the delivering component (transport carriage or support column), and wherein after the transfer by means of a control surface on the pin receiver of the delivering component (transport carriage or support column) a latching element at the receiving component (support column or transport carriage) is latched.
The invention has as its object to so form a connecting device of the previously mentioned type that increased security is obtained during the transfer of the patient support means from one support apparatus to another.